From Neo to Hotbed Press! Studios!

Hotbed Studios

Hotbed Studios

Hotbed Studios

As part of my research I have been looking at all sorts of studios.   I hope to share a studio with a colleague when I finish so this is of great interest to me.   I have used the print room at Neoartists in Bolton before and they are very helpful.  They are quite reasonable in price and accessible.  This week however I went to see Hotbed Press Studios in Salford, they were running a short course on painterly screen printing and took the opportunity to see what facilities they have.   

Both are good spaces but what they don't offer is a space to sell direct to the public.   Manchester Craft Centre and Cedar Farm both have this facility.   You have a small workspace and selling area.  I visited Manchester Craft Centre this week.  It's a beautiful Victorian building but there are no shops available at present and they are more expensive to rent.  What I did notice was they have recently opened an area to do workshops which are useful to generate extra income.

Manchester Craft Centre

Inside Manchester Craft Centre

Cafe at Manchester Craft Centre

Corridor leading to Studios 

Down to Basics

Digital Print Sample on Velvet

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Digital Print Samples

I've  been really stuck these last couple of weeks, blocked by the amount of work to do but also the process of designing.    I have extended my collection to include pylons, telegraph poles etc but I need to combine this with other elements in the landscape.

What's really worrying me is how can I reproduce the tactile quality of my paper pieces.  The other day I scanned in some mixed media pieces, altered the threshold to create black and white images for acetates for silk screening and I'll work with these on different fabrics.

I have printed off three digital pieces but they need work to make them interesting.  The first fabric proved to be dull and lifeless but the samples above produced on velvet were better but the fabric was difficult to work with and kept crumpling in the machine.  It required two of us to hold down the fabric in place.    

I've bought some dyes to create painted effects on cloth similar to the marks I can make on paper.  I need to have the same approach I use to paper as I do with cloth and not be frightened to experiment.

Twentieth Century Design at the City Art Gallery

Cabinet Made of Mixed Media Punched with Decoration

Close Up detail of Cabinet

Organic Chair Created with Layers of Metal

These two pieces of furniture were on display at Manchester City Art Gallery in their Contemporary Twentieth Century Display.   Both are inspired by nature and form.   I love both these pieces.  The cabinet was a combination of metal, lacquer and wood and had a lovely feminine feel despite the hard sometimes harsh metal.

The second piece, the chair reminded me of being by the sea and the weathered contours of the rock weathered by the sea.

Land Art at the Whitworth

On visiting the Whitworth to see the Richard Lang Exhibition I was struck once again by this installation in the grounds outside which has been there for some time now.  I love the beauty of the tree roots and it always makes me smile.

Richard Lang

Richard Lang

I visited the Whitworth Art Gallery to see the work of Land Art of Richard Lang (unfortunately I was unable to take my own photographs of the work due to copyright issues)  but I enjoyed the exhibition and feel it is interesting in relation to my own theme of pattern in landscape.   He seems to take the beauty of natural material and manipulate it in various locations.  Another view of the landscape is shown in the  current exhibition of John Piper and his Snowdonian watercolour landscapes.  These were beautiful atmospheric paintings.

Pop-Up Exhibition/Shops

Pop Up Exhibition by Neil Dimelow

Close up detail of one of Neil Dimelow's Paintings

Visiting Manchester the other day I saw this pop-up exhibition in Piccadilly Gardens.   Usually this type of "Pop-Up" shops are placed in empty shops or outside areas and offer the landlord an opportunity to improve the look of their empty shop.  This may be an interesting and attainable way of showing work.   I think I need to research into this for myself.

Alice Kettle - Unexpected Find

Piece by Alice Kettle at Platt Hall Gallery of Costume

Detail from work above showing stitch detail

Close up Detail

Whilst visiting Platt Hall Gallery of Costume I came across this small picture by Alice kettle.  Most of the work I have seen of hers has been on a very large scale such as those in the Whitworth Art Gallery, but this piece was relatively small.  It was donated by the artist herself after her exhibition "Telling Fortunes" in 2010.  I was able to buy a copy of a brochure produced for the exhibition.  It was interesting to read the artists statement, her inspiration and explanation of how she views the work.    

Another interesting find were some ceramics she produced in collaboration with Alex McErlain.

Raqib Shaw Exhibition at Manchester City Art Gallery

On arrival at the Manchester City Art Gallery today, to see the exhibition by Raqib Shaw, I was faced by this magical series of willow and spring flower installation by the artist.   The pattern of the willow following the regimented railings created a beautiful hedgerow in the city - it  took my breath away.  

Raqib Shaw is an Indian born, London based internationally known mixed media artist.  His work  reflects the ornate style of Persian miniatures and Kashmiri and Japanese textiles.   They are bejewelled like surfaces with sometimes violent story telling and images.  The artist who is inspired by nature felt he wanted to create this magical wonderland that almost encases the gallery.    It took two weeks to complete it with an army of helpers.

Inside the exhibition was just as magical.

Detail from a Raqib Shaw painting   (Watercolour, graphite, acrylic, enamel, glitter and rhinestones on paper)

Detail from large painting of poppies

By Raqib Shaw

This work was certainly inspirational, his observations of nature and animals were beautiful.

VISITS AND PERSPEX!

My obsession this week is arranging visits to various creatives and secondly sourcing perspex.  These two things have been worrying me this week and finally today I feel I made a step forward.  I have a vision for my final show of sandwiching my work between two pieces of perspex like a museum specimen.  I want to do this on a relatively large scale and two things have been worrying me about this.   First, the PRACTICAL side.   Where to get the perspex, what size, what width of perspex, what thickness of perspex and WHAT PRICE!  As a visual person I like to see and touch things before I buy them and wanted a local manufacturer or supplier.   On  a trip out today to take more photographs of pylons I came across a small factory unit that can do what I want they were really helpful and cut a small piece for me to experiment with.

The second biggest WORRY is whether it will work or obscure and devalue my pieces.   I need to experiment with this idea and mock up some pieces.  At least I know where I can obtain the material from when and if I decide to do this.

There is so much to do I feel I'm just about keeping my head above water.  I'm filling my time with detail but I don't know whether all this is avoidance tactics  -  I need to get down to the practical work but feel stuck and in sheer panic.  Tomorrow I'm going to just work through my 'block' I usually find if I start to try loads of different ideas at the same time something sparks off my imagination!

CREATIVE IDENTITY

Creating my own identity with my logo has been more difficult than I anticipated.  I found many images and styles that I liked but applying that to myself as a "textile artist" has been difficult.  Creating an image that shows both aspects.   It has been difficult because it requires a clear statement of how I see my work.  I want a sophisticated but artistic versatile logo that can be adapted to future design work but also relate to my final show!

Above I have been playing around with a couple of images on business cards, one that show the textile element of my work the other my art work.   These soft greys, blues, whites, and black reflect my final collection.

I like the idea of a circle and as in the illustration at the top of the blog I have added a line suggesting wool or cotton.

I found the font for my name difficult I wanted it to be simple.   By changing the lettering around I feel it gives a more contemporary feel.

CREATIVE SPACE

I took these photographs today of my workspace at uni.  I've surrounded myself with my own photographs and a couple of images of my own work.  It is interesting to see that the colour scheme I have been formulating is evident in the images themselves.  Greys, whites, blues, black and touches of green and yellow.  I want to add silver as well with other processes.  Hopefully I can get into the print room this week to experiment with different materials and processes.    I have produced two acetates to screen print from on various fabrics and hope to digitally print as well.

My current problem is scale.   I know the designs work on paper and stitch (in small scale) they are very tactile and have a certain quality of their own, but when I scale these up I am concerned I will loose this.   So I need to experiment!

NEO ARTIST EXHIBITION

Ross Loveday Fine Art Prints

Had a full day today researching and printing from my photographs using the gum arabic method.  While I was there one of the artists said there was an excellent exhibition on at the Neo Artists Gallery in Bolton by Fine Art Printmaker Ross Loveday  which related to the type of work I have been doing.  So I made a visit and loved the work below:-

                          

   

Ross Loveday says  "The fine line which separates figuration and abstraction interests me,  time, place, weather and light alongside gesture, glimpse and memory.  The subjects are only the starting points - sometimes small insignificant details or texture triggers a complete piece."   He has won several prizes and has had work selected by the Prince of Wales and purchased for his private collection.  He uses Drypoint Carborundum printmaking which uses a mixture of carborundum (a gritty sand-like substance - and glue.  He draws directly into the plate using a sharp pointed steel tool to leave marks and furrows in the plate.

I love these textured pieces.  It is what  I have been trying to achieve with paint,  print and stitch.  They have wonderful depth and quality.

It has made me think I want to experiment with all different forms of print.

EDGE OF DARKNESS

I have been doing some research on artists and photographers using landscape as their theme and came across this photographic collection "Edge of Darkness" by Ian Beesley who turns out to be a course leader at Bolton uni for the MA Photography Course. 

Pylon Paradise

This weekend I have been out taking more photographs of pylons and marks in the landscape.   I have become obsessed.   I have been working on these and earlier photographs creating mixed media pieces in my sketchbook using paint and stitch.

Mixed Media Piece

 

I experimented with stitching into wet paper -  needs more practice.    I liked the back of the image  - its linear style.

I feel the abstract nature of the piece works well and could offer a different collection along side the other more literal collection.   I am still interested in the Macro to Micro collection which I started in the last module and feel these pieces could be expanded into this collection.